Improving literacy at Springfield Community Primary School

Would you consider Springfield CPS to be a language-rich community?

Yes! We ensure our classroom environments are vocabulary rich allowing teachers to immerse children in the wonderful world of words! We introduce texts with interesting and high-level vocabulary and we are incredibly mindful about how we use language throughout the day.

What do you have in place to support whole-school literacy?

We follow a cross-curricular curriculum across all classes to ensure children can use vocabulary repetitively and in different contexts, this allows it to become more embedded in their long-term memory. Our English units begin with a long reading phase, with lots of different texts introduced, lots of vocabulary discussion and activities as well as role play and drama activities.

How have you implemented Bedrock and what has worked?

We use Bedrock as an activity in our Guided Reading sessions. Throughout lockdown, it was used as an online learning resource. We celebrate children’s successes and the progress they make in class assemblies. We share the words that have been learnt and we look at how we can use them in our writing.

In what ways does the actionable data generated by Bedrock inform your practice in the classroom and across the school?

As a school, we track the use of Bedrock and sessions completed over a week. We are constantly analysing how we can utilise the information in changing situations, particularly lockdown and isolations.

What challenges do you face and how has Bedrock supported you in overcoming these challenges?

We face many challenges around academic achievement in our school, with children making good progress but not necessarily meeting attainment expectations. Our school is in a highly deprived area and so language acquisition is generally poor and as a school, we work together to raise children’s vocabulary and understanding. We also have a rising number of children with English as an additional language and therefore Bedrock is a valuable resource for children that have built their confidence and are able to speak English but are not always sure of new words and their meanings.